2014 Georgia QSO Party

Last weekend (April 12th-13th) I participated in the Georgia QSO Party and while I achieved a score I’m proud of, I have mixed emotions about the contest. But before I discuss all the reasons for that, here is a summary of my contacts for the weekend:

Contacts

Multipliers

222

United States

43

Unique States

4

Canada

2

Unique Provinces

3

DX

229

TOTAL

45

TOTAL

229 QSOs x 45 multipliers = 10,305 claimed score

WHAT I DID

I operated for 7 hours on Saturday and 5 hours on Sunday. I collected 144 QSOs on 20m and 85 on 40m. I worked 43 states (7 new), 1 new province and 1 new DX during the contest. I nearly doubled the number of QSOs I had in the log and tripled the number of my QRZ lookups. I also worked 30 Georgia counties (25 of them unique).

It was my impression that the band conditions absolutely stunk. 15m and 10m were nothing but noise, so I stuck to 40m and 20m, which is what worked best for me. 20m was really hot on Sunday, where I obtained the majority of my contacts from the Left Coast. I’m glad I stuck around for Sunday because it was clearly a better day to contest over Saturday. (I suspect better band conditions AND participation).

MY “STRATEGY”

I decided I would operate from Gordon County for the duration of the contest. I figured Gordon County would be more appealing given the very limited number of QSOs (1,316) versus the crazy number of QSOs from Cherokee (14,914) in the past 8 years. According to comments I received during my QSOs, I believe it worked out in my favor. Although I typically operate QRP (5 watts), I borrowed a radio to run 100 watts during this contest. It wouldn’t help me hear the other stations any better, but they’d definitely hear me better and I (correctly?) assumed I would obtain more QSOs in the long-run. However, raising my power put me in a different league of contesters, which might not necessarily work in my favor. We’ll see.

ANTENNA/RADIO SETUP

I originally set up shop on the back deck of my parent’s house but the pollen was a bit much, so I eventually moved it indoors. The morning of the contest I cut a 66′ 40m doublet using 18ga copper clad steel, fed with 45′ of 450ohm ladder wire. With the help of my father, I hung the antenna in the back yard. The antenna sloped NNW from about 15′ to 30’+ in height. I also set up a Buddipole in the back yard, as a backup, but never had to use it.

The antenna was attached to a 4:1 balun and run into a Kenwood TS-480SAT, operating at 100 watts. This contest was my first dedicated use of VOX, using a Heil Proset headset. I logged all my contacts in CQRLOG. It was also my first experience running anything greater than 5 watts and while I couldn’t tell a difference, I’m sure the other stations I was talking to would have known the difference.

LESSONS LEARNED

If you plan on raising a wire antenna in the trees, plan additional time in case things don’t go as planned (they won’t).

Set up early. The earlier, the better. The contest waits for no Ham.

VOX can be a blessing and a curse. At the same time. Don’t so much as sniff during a QSO or you’ll have to ask the other station to repeat themselves. Hopefully only once.

If you’re operating from a “rare” county, make sure you say so when calling CQ — you’ll attract more attention.

I used to tease other Hams for always sending a 5-9 even when they had trouble copying your callsign. I get it now.

Be prepared for long periods of silence if calling CQ during sloppy band conditions.

State QSO Parties are only as successful as the number of individuals willing to participate.

Take a break and stretch. Your body will thank you.

If your radio has some sort of voice recording capabilities, use it to call CQ. Your voicebox will thank you.

It’s just a contest. There will be another one next year.

TL;DR

Considering what I’d been told in the past about the popularity of the contest, I was left disappointed with my number of QSOs. And it wasn’t for a lack of trying, either: I called CQ several times a minute for the entirety of my participation in the contest. At one time, I sent an email to the reflector stating, “I was promised a pileup.” While I did have a few mini-pileups, I’ve experienced larger pileups during my SOTA activations. (In defense of “normal” Hams, the SOTA crowd is a bit zealous.) 🙂

While I don’t aspire to be a frequent contester, I was in it to win it for this contest (or the division I was competing in rather). Strategically, I believe my choice to operate in a less-frequented county may have given me a slight edge but I’m still on the fence about operating LP instead of QRP. I suppose we’ll see what happens when the scores shake out — but if last year was any indication, I at least placed in the top few participates for my class. I think. 🙂